Newark Emergency Services for Families’ Marketing Plan Research Paper

Summary

Over the decades, a significant percentage of families encountered a key challenge of financial stability, leading to homelessness. Newark Emergency Services for Families (NESF) integrated a program that focuses on the empowerment of families through the provision of support and basic necessities. NESF’s efficacy level optimally relies on the division of responsibilities across the distinctive departments. The sections include the Homeless Services Unit, Self-Sufficiency Unit, Family and Youth Development Unit, and the Senior and Health Services Unit. The coordination among teams in the various stations fosters effectively addressing the needs of the families, mainly short-term housing and skills training fit to secure employment.

Objectives

Primary Objective

To expand homeless prevention services offered by closing the service gap of the agency. In this case, NESF creates shelters for men and women in need of placements, contrary to referring to external community shelters due to the imminent inadequacy in the city of Newark, New Jersey.

Secondary Objective

To assist in the transition of families and individuals from homelessness to self-sufficiency.

Mission

To foster the stabilization of families and individuals during crisis while empowering and preparing them towards attaining self-sufficiency.

Vision

To develop a highly sustainable Essex County community concerned with the families, individuals, and children’s welfare through nurtured and supportive programs promoting self-sufficiency and better quality of living.

Positioning in the Marketplace

NESF aims at offering a distinctive product and service mainly to individuals and families undergoing crisis. The quotients include mortgage and utility assist, short-term shelter, food and clothing, and dynamic supportive constituents. Additionally, NESF provides an operational hotline for families to call and seek help within Essex County. In this case, NESF sufficiently accomplishes its market positioning through the incorporation of various catalogs. The Supportive Assistance to Individuals and Families (SAIF) program, Prisoner Re-Integration program, and Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) long-term housing subsidies steer the implementational process.

Primarily, NESF diversifies its engagements and activities to strategically boost the outreach essence across the Essex County and the positioning of the brand on humanitarian aid. The optimal performance of the projects plays a proficient role in the advocacy for intensive care management for transition from unemployment to viable candidates in the working-class sector. The organizational chart maps a potent coordination to elevate competence in brand positioning in the market as demonstrated in Appendix I.

Benefits to Consumers

The differentiation of services by NESF involves the nongovernmental organizations enhancing client empowerment, rights, and the self-sufficiency. Apart from providing the basic necessities to the families, NESF developed a program involving the skills training of the personnel. Carman (2009) articulates that socioeconomic growth and development is a reflection of the empowerment quotient among community members. Further, the institution offers job development opportunities among the clients to enhance self-employment and the expansive essence of customers’ benefits. Therefore, NESF management team integrates supportive housing and learning opportunities to ensure growth among the consumers with minimal stress on homelessness. The foundational outlier of the initiative encapsulates enriching the social network among counterparts based on the skills capacity and advancement in the quality of living.

NESF indirectly benefits dynamic consumers, mainly the community members based on the incorporated programs. One of the quotients entails empowering the clients with skills capacity to give back in the socioeconomic growth and development within the region. Wymer et al. (2016) indicate that skills training and education among homeless personnel contributes to intense brand positioning. Apart from the trickle-down effect on engagement among consumers in the society, NESF enhances the participation of community members in the developmental activities. An excellent example is the proposition of constructing additional shelters for the families seeking emergency services on shelter placement.

The involvement of the personnel fosters sustainability based on the appropriateness of strategic distribution of the population. The perspective attributes to the effective distributional chain of products and services within the territorial spectrum.

In a different continuum, the establishment of NESF rendered the creation of employment opportunities to distinctive professions. NESF amassed dynamic interests among sponsors and volunteers whose vision entails enhancing sustainable growth and development. Ideally, the project attributed to the creation of self-fulfillment and purpose among counterparts regarding the approaches to empower community members. Therefore, the internal and external partners and workers significantly benefit from NESF activities and operations on ideological constructs concerning individual welfare and self-sufficiency.

Situational Review

Target Market

Nonprofit organization is a conglomerate of distinctive goals involving the promotion of welfare among the customers. Helmig and Thaler (2010) stipulate that the strategic management encapsulates the outsourcing funds and allocating based on the core objectives of the nonprofit entities. The proposition to expand the homeless services through the construction of additional units relies on the outcome from the community’s and other participants’ opinions. Ideally, Lovejoy and Saxton (2012) postulate action, community participation, and enlightenment steer nonprofit organization’s performance. The main reason for the project involves enhancing the distribution of product and services for NESF’s competence and marketability across the Essex County. The outlying target market is families in Essex County experiencing crisis rendering homelessness and financial stability.

NESF’s direct clients comprises the middle to low-income families facing financial crisis that risks homelessness within the Essex County. The personnel’s social network enshrines the local community institutions, such as the church. The target market’s demographic traits, mainly the direct clients entail children, senior citizens, ex-prisoners, and individuals from different ethnicities, sexual identities and educational levels in Essex County.

In this case, the NESF managerial team incorporated the diverse programs addressing the needs of counterparts based on the demographic foundation. An excellent example is the establishment of the Youth development program focusing on skills training among the younger generations as capacity building quotient. The implementation of the marketing plan fosters a significant outreach to the families and individuals experiencing homelessness across the Essex County.

A different target market audience is the organizations and stakeholders facilitating the actualization of the project. A profound percentage of the entities enshrines professionals in diverse fields of practice aiming to give back to the community. The quotient aptly contributes in the intensification of the social network based on the engagements. The demographic characteristics regards the differential margin on level of education, ethnicity, and the social class phases. NESF attains the clientele baseline through the marketability of the institution’s core objectives hence the voluntary involvement to boost the agenda on community empowerment. Therefore, the stakeholders and organizations play a crucial role in the expansion of the pool of expertise concerning the strategic management of the nongovernmental institution.

The internal consumers represent the third target market quotient encompassing mainly the volunteers in the entity. A significant percentage of the clientele enshrines retired citizens and the youths. Further, students in the social work learning courses participate as interns in the implementation of the plans thus gaining adept experience concerning sustainable growth and development. The implementation of the marketing plan entails the establishment of additional shelters across the region to enhance the sustenance of the placement program. Therefore, the involvement of the internal customers boosts the capacity on acknowledging the importance of elevating quality of living among community members as the foundation of effective socioeconomic strategy.

The donors representing the external consumers play a proficient role in the amplification of NESF project implementation process. The marketing plan focuses on the construction of additional shelters hence demanding additional funding and availability of resources. The current pool of donors engulfs organizations, community members, government institutions, and families. Stid and Seldon (2012) establish that the involvement diverse entities in funding contributes in eliminating the influential financial crisis to the institution’s projects. The actualization of the marketing plan’s core objective boosts the confidence index among the counterparts to increase the investment mark due to the adept positive effect on socioeconomic growth and development.

Target Audience Competitors

Over the decades, the prevalence of sociological issues, mainly homelessness within the Newark region attributed to the establishment of additional nonprofit organizations. An excellent example of a competitor featuring similar strategy on housing of homeless families entails HomeFront. In the study by Walker and McCarthy (2010), the scholars articulate that the competitive advantage among nonprofit organizations encompasses the incorporation of product and service differentiation contributing in the empowerment of the niche target market. Ideally, HomeFront utilizes the initiative on assisting families break the chain of poverty through the skills training and creating job opportunities.

The niche target market entails the increasing homeless families across Newark region and the solution lies in differentiating the shelter placement product through construction of additional units across different Newark’s urban and rural sections.

PESTs

NESF encounter distinctive challenges based on the external influential factors within the margin of political, economic, social, and technological gradients. Walker and McCarthy (2010) establish that the legitimacy of a nonprofit organization engulfs the minimization of the abound risks. Saxton and Guo (2011) further postulate that accountability is the vital performance indicator for the institutions. A significant percentage of the NESF clients face dynamic problems, mainly the economic recess and health crisis leading to the loss of jobs and the regulation of government funds.

The limitation of the amount provided through the government funding pool steered NESF resolution to aptly rely on the donors and well wishers in the facilitation of the activities. Pope et al. (2009) depicts that effective marketing strategy for nonprofit organizations focuses on improving brand identity and positioning. Therefore, Kylander and Stone (2012) establish that the brand influences participatory intensity among the stakeholders.

An excellent example is the necessity of employing laborers for the construction of the shelters. It is vital to intensify the community members’ participatory initiative as a strategy to maximize the job opportunities and the lucrative reconstruction of the socioeconomic pillars. Although technological advancement fostered the elevation in information exchange, it is an initiative that attributes to effective marketing of NESF projects. Strategic integration of the mapping into the actualization process contributes in the awareness creation among potential donors and dynamic clientele base.

In a different spectrum, there is a profound opportunity to market NESF plan across the Essex County based on its network on external linkages. NESF’s clientele pool encapsulates individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, such as news media and corporate world. Therefore, it is crucial the managerial team engages the counterparts on the implementation process mainly on marketing and broadcasting the project progress across the Essex County audience. On the one hand, the awareness attracts potential donors and well-wishers. On the other hand, families undergoing crisis realize the potent of improving the living conditions based on NESF program on empowerment through shelter placement and learning opportunities.

Barriers to the Marketing Plan

A major barrier to the implementation of the marketing plan entails accessing adequate funding of the project. The plan entails constructing shelters as an expansion of the placement program among the homeless families. Despite the sustenance of the initiative, it is challenging to secure sufficient funding on account of the current economic recession and the limited government funding framework. Therefore, the managerial team seeks to intensify the essence of volunteer while utilizing cheaper materials for the construction of the entities. The completion of the project is a strategy to attract additional donors and sponsors towards the facilitation in the penetration of the dynamic Essex County population mainly facing the financial stability challenge.

A different strategy to counter the barrier on the implementation of the marketing plan enshrines conducting indepth research concerning sustainable solutions. Primarily, it is the core responsibility of the key stakeholders to ensure the appropriate allocation of the funds and the resources. Transcendentally, it is crucial to incorporate an investigative practice regarding the alternatives to expansive shelter placement as a means of determining effective solution outline for the nonprofit organization. The amplification on the clarity of the marketing plan proficiently depends on the acknowledgement among the stakeholders regarding the state of the market.

Budget

Table 1. Marketing plan proposal.

NESF seeks approximately $204,000 for the facilitation of the entire marketing plan implementation while accounting for the dynamic expenses. Apart from the delivery of information across the social media platforms and news print, it is crucial to integrate the general costs to establish clarity on the goals and objectives to accomplish. The core foundational outlier relies on the participatory index of the stakeholders, mainly the community and NESF managerial team. The advocacy for an effective shelter placement perspective prominently attributes to the sustainable growth and development of the region on account of the functional trickle-down effect of the accrued benefits.

Marketing Channels for Audience Outreach

The core marketing channel for the NESF audient outreach enshrines news media, social media platforms, and the website. One of the key advantages for the NESF entails the positive public relation and attitude based on its productivity. Therefore, the institution seeks to optimize on the traditional methods of marketing encompassing word of mouth and referrals and testimonials. The main aim of the nonprofit organization engulfs attracting additional pool of donors and creating awareness among the homeless personnel. In this case, the managerial team exploits the social network mainly, stakeholders in the various professional backgrounds.

An excellent example is the use of a client’s social media audience to market the initiative on expansive shelter placement program for the families facing housing issues. The intersection of the strategies across the dynamic marketing channels prominently improves the performance quotient in the acquisition of the niche target audience.

Evaluation of Marketing Plan

Overarching Goal 1

Increasing the clientele engagement with the NESF programs.

Objective

The managerial team utilizes the media channels to share crucial information with the clients concerning the derived value and the differentiation feature of the products and services

Measurement and Evaluation

One of identifiers to achieve the objective enshrines recording a higher number of comments among the online users concerning the project plan. Currently, the company’s website features ten comments. Therefore, the managerial team targets at least an increase to 100 comments based on the content posted across the various social media platforms. The administration further intends to enhance the response system from the current 47% to 100% remarkably in five minutes. Therefore, it is crucial that the technicians incorporate an automated chat box that offers response to clients’ queries to amplify the engagement quotient. The target outreach engulfs 360 online and offline based new customers participating in the NESF program.

Overarching Goal 2

The amplification of the NESF brand identity within the Essex County community for donors and internal clients.

Objective

To intensify the relationship among stakeholders through the interaction across the social media platforms.

Measurement and Evaluation

NESF management seeks to measure the elevation of the brand identity and competence within the market scope. In this case, the team assesses the rating of positive and negative reviews. The dynamism on customer comments renders an insight regarding the effectiveness of the improvement and the emergent drawbacks. Another measuring quotient is the traffic flow of online clients based on the views and feedback. The higher score of followership and inquiries determines the efficacy of the marketing strategy through the social media platforms and the news media. The organization’s brand positioning relies on involvement of the consumers and the administrative team targets 40% increase in annual donations and volunteering programs from the current 24% score.

References

Carman, J. G. (2009). Nonprofits, funders, and evaluation: Accountability in action. The American Review of Public Administration, 39(4), 374-390. Web.

Helmig, B., & Thaler, J. (2010). Nonprofit marketing. In R. Taylor (ed.) Third Sector Research (151-169). Springer. Web.

Kylander, N., & Stone, C. (2012). The role of brand in the nonprofit sector. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 37 – 41. Web.

Lovejoy, K., & Saxton, G. D. (2012). Information, community, and action: How nonprofit organizations use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 337-353. Web.

Pope, J. A., Isely, E. S., & Asamoa‐Tutu, F. (2009). Developing a marketing strategy for nonprofit organizations: An exploratory study. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 21(2), 184-201. Web.

Saxton, G. D., & Guo, C. (2011). Accountability online: Understanding the web-based accountability practices of nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(2), 270-295. Web.

Stid, D., & Seldon, W. (2012). Five ways to navigate the fiscal crisis. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 37-41. Web.

Walker, E.T., & McCarthy, J.D. (2010). Legitimacy, strategy, and resources in the survival of community-based organizations. Social Problems, 57, 315-340. Web.

Wymer, W., Gross, H. P., & Helmig, B. (2016). Nonprofit brand strength: What is it? How is it measured? What are its outcomes?. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 27(3), 1448-1471. Web.

Appendix 1: Organizational Chart